The Kurdistan Women’s Communities (Komalên Jinên Kurdistanê, KJK) Coordination issued a statement following the rumors that Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan has died in Imrali Island Prison where he has been held in a state of total isolation since 1999.

The statement by the KJK Coordination includes the following:

"The conditions of aggravated isolation imposed on Leader Apo (Abdullah Öcalan) are getting worse day by day. Our Leader has been subjected to inhumane practices for 23 years in Imrali prison, which have not been applied to any prisoner in history. In the past, our Leader was subjected to torture, solitary confinement, forced hair buzzcut and poisoning. The corona epidemic and the fire that broke out in Imrali last year have exacerbated the ill-treatment against our Leader.

Millions of Kurds remained on alert and did not stop until the Leader was heard from. On each occasion, the Leader calmed down the people and our movement with great common sense.

Since the news circulated through social media over the life of our Leader on 15 March 2021, our Movement, the Kurdish people, women and our friends have been seriously concerned about our Leader.

At the moment, millions of people, especially Kurdish women and people are with great anger and concern. Except for an urgent meeting with the Leader and the Leader's direct speech, no statement should stop our people as they will not satisfy us. The sensitivity of our movement, women and our people regarding the situation of our Leader is well known. Our patience should not be tested, those who adopt an approach to normalize the ill-treatment of our Leader are making a big mistake and should be ready for the answer to be given by our people.

Recently, our Leader has been embraced by freedom campaigns in the international arena and his paradigm and ideas have inspired peoples of the world.

The campaigns focused on the freedom of our Leader have made the physical freedom of the Leader an urgent issue. It is unacceptable to respond to these demands of the peoples with rumours about our Leader's life.

Everywhere should be turned into a field of resistance should our Leader get harmed in any way, let alone if his life is in question. We need to respond to such serious situations with resistance. We should not allow such situations to become ordinary. We have to show our reaction to the fascist mentality through our actions and our resistance. The freedom of our Leader is our freedom. Therefore, everyone, especially women and youth, should be in action for our Leader until we get news from him.

We call on international institutions and organizations, especially the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) to fulfill their duties. Otherwise, we will consider these institutions responsible as much as the fascist government of the Republic of Turkey.

From now on, we should not accept any approach other than the physical freedom of our Leader. As long as our Leader is held hostage, there will always be dangers over the life of our Leader. Based on the spirit of resistance of March and our decision to resist on March 8, we should welcome Newroz with actions focusing on the freedom of the Leader."